Looking for an all in one utility app? Check out Power Tools for BlackBerry 10

Being the BlackBerry power user that I am, I am always on the lookout for multifunctional utility applications. When I rocked my 9800 and 9900, Fixmo Tools and QuickLaunch were mainstays. For those of you who want an app that offers a variety of functions without separate purchases, I introduce to you Power Tools for BlackBerry 10. There is not just one or two apps included but twelve different tools that it make an effective active frame application for day-to-day use.

This undertaking by Toysoft compiles quite a few of their popular offerings in one convenient place with a few never seen before. For example, the encryption option utilizes the built-in BlackBerry AES one to secure your files. Whether it be creating custom alarms, assigning LED colors, adding a screen lock or spam block, shredding files or swapping wallpapers, there is a little bit of something for everyone depending on your needs. One that I enjoy happens to be the ability to select a different wallpaper for the lock screen without the workaround.

Bluetooth - Control when to turn on and off Bluetooth Daily, Weekdays and Weekly. Schedule multiple Bluetooth

LED Color - Add color LED to incoming Text, Email, Facebook LinkedIn, Twitter or Accounts. Customize LED for Contacts with Vibrate and Ringtone. Over 25 different color combinations to use. Set contact or Account to VIP status so that you will never miss their text or email. VIP will blink and play the ringtone regardless what the system Notification is set to. Sorry BBM and WhatsUp is not supported yet

Sound Profile - Schedule and Manage system Sound Profiles. Turn system sound to Vibrate or Silent at nights, Normal in the morning, set Vibrate at the Office, Silent at Church on Sundays, Alert Offs for weekly Staff meeting etc... Sound Profile switching is automated. You just have to set the start and end times and leave it to Power Tools. Sound Profile is only available on OS10.2 and higher

Wallpaper - Set custom wallpaper on every minute, 5 minutes up to 8 hours, set time to change only Daily, Weekdays or Weekly. Chose a picture folder to randomly or sequentially change pictures. You can optionally add the Battery percentage and current date to the wallpaper. Note: Due to OS10.2 changes when changing wallpapers a Toast message is displayed.

Picture Resize - Resize a single picture from the Pictures, File Manager or any apps that has Share or Open In feature. When resizing you can select many different sizes to resize the picture like Screen Size, percentage and predefined sizes.

File Shredder - The ultimate personal security. When you delete a file from the Pictures or File Manager app the content is not erased therefore it is possible to recover the deleted file and view the content. By shredding the file it would make it impossible to recover the content. File Shredder will write to the physical location of the files with random data many files over so the content can not be recovered.

Battery Information - Gives you detail information on the current Battery status such as percentage, usage before empty, charging information such as time to fully charged and more.

Operating Power Tools requires no effort at all. When the application is launched it is literally a blank slate. You decide which items to populate the application by selecting them from the list. This means tools maybe added more than once to suit your needs and can be removed just as easily. As with their other applications, each of the applications included are easy to use and are modifiable. For instance, you may choose to assign multiple contact LED's or sound profiles. All will run together in one active frame. While Toysoft plans to support headless apps, as of now it must remain an active frame to run properly.

However, that is not to say that there aren't a couple of bugs that may appear from time to time based on my usage. In saying that, I have been working with Toysoft and they have been resolved but you should be aware of one that pops up nonetheless. There is a potential issue when trying to open an unsupported file type via an email attachment it may load in Power Tools. Users can either tap on the download and select the default application or adjust this option in settings. Toysoft is pretty quick with support and is responsive in the forums.

I am a huge admirer of multifunction apps and Power Tools offers an array of useful features for one low price of $3.99 for all BlackBerry 10 devices running OS 10.0 and higher. Please note that certain capabilities such as the notification sound profile, new notification and block all calls feature requires OS 10.2. If you've been holding off on trying any of the applications in their catalog be sure to check this all-in-one utility app out.

Reader comments

Looking for an all in one utility app? Check out Power Tools for BlackBerry 10

This app keeps making my Blackberry bridge on my playbook disable and will not connect. I have to keep installing the bridge and its doing my head in. So far all I can see it does is show me the battery level and memory?

For headless wallpaper changer app, I use Watcher in bbw. Its got all other diff stuff but it's the headless wallpaper changer is why I bought it. No disrespect to app for this post though. Just sharing.

I am going for it. The dev is dedicated to BlackBerry so it will only get better. It is pricier than most apps, but it also has a ton more function than most 99 centers. I expect pay for my time & expertise, so figure others should too.

Alicia, that was an excellent dissertation and the app itself has merit. However I think the ire that's apparent in some of the comments are justifiably driven by the lunacy that the OS was not launched with headless app capability. It's in the list of many things that were ab every day part of legacy BlackBerry devices, that are not part of BlackBerry 10. This is the case for me at the very least. The words "coming soon" are cold comfort at best. I'm expecting the OS to be up to what bit should have been on launch, by about 10.3.

The "ire" that is apparent in comments seems mostly to me to be a bunch of self-entitled babies who think everything should be free.

Headless version of this app is coming, it's not the developers fault that Blackberry just starting approving apps like that something like 2-3 weeks ago and the approval process is very demanding. (Good on Blackberry - unlike Android that means when you have a background app it won't kill your battery, use up all your memory, or steal your data.)

Unlike other wallpaper changers. You can schedule when to change with multiple times during the day. Like change only in the morning at 9:00am, 12 noon, 5pm, 9pm etc.. or you can just create one wallpaper type and have it rotate every 15 minutes during the day. You can put the current datetime and battery % on the actual wallpaper too.

Not to mention how much we could SELL the abilities in the new BB10 OS with just this one App in the device to device show-downs that are always occurring on the street... I.e: iphone vs BB vs Samsung, etc... Just saying.

are you kidding? Look at how much the Call Blocker is $2.99 and it doesn't do a whole lot. Call blocker is included with Power Tools. If you purchase every tools in Power Tools it will cost you over $20 bucks.

I don't see "Call Blocker" in their list or in the description above, but it would be a very nice feature to add and if it is included in message blocker or somewhere else, maybe it needs to be more obvious, or maybe I need more sleep. ;)

Yes, I'm very aware of that fact, but an app that is merely another way to do what the phone already does such as silence calls is NOT a "Call Blocker" app. For instance, swipe down>settings>notifications>silent mode or turn off all notifications OR just turn the volume down, lol.

I'd also love a real call blocking app. For now I have set up a contact named "Ignore" and I assign the junk numbers as the various home, work, etc numbers. I made a 30 second silent file in Parrot that I assigned as the ringtone. I don't have to hear it, so it works for now for me until a true call blocking app comes up.

Wow, they are fast on replying. I sent them an email with a couple of questions and got an answer back in literally five minutes. ( sent at 10:53, response at 10:58). I checked out their website and from what I could see, they are a dedicated BlackBerry developer. Just for those two things alone I am going to get this app.

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